Ms Yong Ying- I

Hall of Fame, 2014

Ms Yong's contributions to Singapore's infocomm development go back to the late 1990s when she spearheaded the merger of the National Computer Board and the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore to form IDA, which is responsible for developing information technology and telecommunications within Singapore. As the founding CEO of IDA from 1999 to 2001, she led the organisation to achieve milestones like the full liberalisation of Singapore's telecommunications market in 2000; and launched the Infocomm 21 masterplan, laying the foundation for the growth of Singapore as a dynamic global infocomm capital.

Ms Yong continued to provide her leadership and foresight in driving the transformation of the private, people and public sectors through IT, first as Deputy Chairman (from 2003 to 2007) and then Chairman of IDA from 2007 till present. Under her chairmanship, IDA worked towards realising the Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) vision of Singapore as a global city, an intelligent nation powered by infocomm. As part of the iN2015 vision, Ms Yong played a leadership role in the deployment of the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network to more than 95% of homes and businesses, enabling access to a wide range of competitively-priced broadband services.

Growing IDA's external wing, Ms Yong initiated the setting up of offices in key markets like the US, India, China and the Middle East as early as 2000. By 2009, IDA International was set up, with Ms Yong as the Chairman, to export Singapore's eGovernment expertise overseas. This has helped to establish the Singapore infocomm brand globally.

Over the last 15 years, Ms Yong's efforts have contributed immensely to Singapore being recognised as a global infocomm hub. Its infocomm industry revenue more than doubled from 2006 to reach S$102.5 million in 2012, supported by a strong pool of 144,300 infocomm professionals. 84% of households enjoy Internet broadband access and there are three mobile phone subscriptions for every two people.

Today, Singapore consistently ranks high on international surveys for harnessing IT for socio-economic development and e-Government. In 2013, Singapore placed second in the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report Ranking for the fourth year running and topped the Waseda University International e-Government Ranking for the fifth straight year.

Besides her work at IDA, Ms Yong tirelessly pushed for the use of IT in her various appointments. During her term as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, the first phase of the National Electronic Health Records System was rolled out in 2011, which would enable patients to move seamlessly within the healthcare system through a single health record for each person. And as Permanent Secretary of the National Research Foundation, she is closely linked to efforts to drive innovation and entrepreneurship, guiding Singapore's research innovation and enterprise strategies.